Google Now

Apple’s marketing boss said recently that Echo-like smart speakers should sport a built-in display to help customers accomplish tasks that voice-only assistants are not very good at, like sharing photos and other interactions that may require some sort of non-voice input from the user.

Google on Monday pushed a small refresh to its native Search app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store. Bumped to version 14.0, the software features an optimized layout of the Now cards to make better use of the iPad’s screen real estate.

“Updated structure for Now cards on iPad, designed to keep your content organized and better surface the info you need most,” reads a line from Google’s release notes accompanying the 65.4-megabyte download.

Facebook on Wednesday began testing a new digital assistant feature called ‘M.’ As explained by Facebook Messenger lead David Marcus, the feature, which lives inside Messenger, is powered by artificial intelligence that can complete tasks and find information on a user’s behalf.

The artificial intelligence is both trained and supervised by real live humans, and unlike other AI-based services available today, it can do things like purchase items and deliver gifts. Of course it can handle normal chores too, such as booking restaurants and logging appointments.

The Internet giant Google on Friday refreshed its native Google Search application for the iPhone and iPad with enhancements to the built-in Google Now feature in the form of new cards for personalized TV recommendations and traffic information.

Furthermore, version 4.2 of Google Search for iOS now includes better Chromecast integration allowing owners of the $35 HDMI dongle to ask Google “what’s on Chromecast?” to open the Chromecast for iPhone app and start casting.

If you thought Bluetooth headsets were dead, think again. Jawbone makes some of the finest portable audio devices and wireless headsets and was among the first to release a Bluetooth headset for Apple’s iPhone. On Thursday, the San Francisco-based company has streamlined its headset offering by announcing a second-generation Era.

It’s 42 percent smaller, comes with its own charging case and looks good enough to be worn in public while offering interesting new voice features aimed at Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now voice assistants. Read on for more info and some nice press shots…

CNET reported last summer that Google Now cards were heading to Google’s Chrome browser for the Mac. Six months later, Google releases a brand new Google Canary build with Google Now cards functionality nested right inside the browser’s notification center which sits in your Mac’s status bar.

Although not all Google Now cards are available in this alpha release of Chrome, the search company has integrated a few of the most popular ones like sports scores, real-time weather updates, and travel information…

After being caught on the wrong foot following Apple’s introduction of the Siri personal digital assistant in October 2011, the Internet giant Google responded by launching Google Now. Mostly owing to a series of missteps, controversial advertising and ongoing reliability issues with Siri, Google has managed to rapidly leapfrog Siri.

But the search monster isn’t stopping there, it wants people to use Google Now no matter the device or platform. After adding Google Now features to its native Search iOS app, Google Now cards are coming to a desktop near you via the Chrome browser…

A week ago, news broke that Apple mulled adding Samsung’s latest Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone to its patent infringement case against Samsung Electronics. It’s not terribly surprising then that Apple has now filed a motion asserting that both the Internet giant’s head-turning Google Now feature and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 handset violate its two Siri patents and five other inventions…

Siri was all the rage when Apple unveiled it alongside its iPhone 4S in the fall of 2011. The digital assistant was highlighted in a number of commercials for the handset during its 11-month life cycle. But since then, we’ve seen a number of competitors arise.

One of those competitors is Google Now, which launched in the summer of last year. And a lot of folks believe that it’s superior to Siri—both in speed and accuracy. But is that really the case? Find out in this new head-to-head comparison video of the two…

Isn’t it interesting how Google circumvents Apple and builds its own platform on top of iOS? Not only are the Internet giant’s popular services like Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Search available as native iOS apps, they’re among most downloaded App Store items.

Despite early complaints of excessive battery drain (and Google’s mild response), the potentially disruptive Google Now feature is now available on iOS devices through Google’s standalone Search iOS app. And now, Google Now could be heading to Macs…